The Eternal Gaijin

I'm not entirely sure what I think of this: Debaptise Yourself! It seems like tacitly asking for the approval of a church and a god that you don't actually believe exists. As someone who was born and baptised as a Catholic, I can say from my own experience that it's something you can get over -- much as you would get over a cold. Removing yourself from baptismal records seems like allowing the church to which you won't submit to still have a hold over you. Still no harm, I just think it's a bit irrelevant. I certainly can't be arsed to trail myself all the way to Sydney to expunge myself from the records. More here if you're interested.

I'm just reading the same shit every week. Quarter of all British govt databases are illegal - Boing Boing BBC NEWS | UK | Call to scrap 'illegal databases'

And fuck you, Fox News .

As it turns out, there's more coming in on the New Scientist article that got pulled. New Humanist (what is it with the 'New' label anyway?) looks into where the legal complaint may have come from and suggests that they may have had no choice but to pull it down for the time being. New Humanist Blog: So why did New Scientist pull that article? News of the article's removal earlier this week triggered some strong reactions in the blogosphere, with many suggesting the magazine had caved in to creationist complaints. At the time I suggested that bloggers ought to stop and think for a moment – New Scientist had clearly received a legal complaint about the article, and had therefore had to remove it while that matter was addressed. This was surely a far more plausible explanation than them trying to avoid offending creationists.

No good can come of a Science Minister that can't say, "Yes, yes I do believe in evolution." So what about Goodyear, our friend in Ottawa? Is Canada’s Science Minister a creationist? | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine Canadian Cynic: Gary Goodyear, meet shitstorm. Shitstorm, Gary. 'Canadian Science minister's coyness on evolution worries researchers' by CBC - RichardDawkins.net Hopefully he'll be embarrassed by the attention and step down. Cause we know that believing Xtians are quite good at doing the right thing. BTW, can I just say that believing in evolution is like believing in atoms or oxygen. It's a fucking fact people. I'm swinging more and more to the idea that we need to start to saying accept evolution when we question people on evolution. It seems that we are tacitly moving evolutionary theory, and science by association, from the empirical into the realm of belief. The implication to the word believe is that the subject is actually a ...

Two more arguments for decriminalization, if not outright legalization.   The case for a domestic marijuana industry | The Argument The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

BBC NEWS | Politics | British 'careless' with liberties British people have been "careless" with their civil liberties, but that is beginning to change, former shadow home affairs minister David Davis has said. Speaking at the Convention on Modern Liberty on Saturday, Mr Davis said people were growing increasingly angry at government intrusion in their lives. ... "We have to accept that society and life carries risk and whilst it is the duty of the state to do its best to moderate and prevent what is wrong, nevertheless there are finite limits," he said. "We, as citizens, have to make this clear to government, we are prepared consciously as adults to accept some element of risk in order to be free." The government's plans to extend the period terrorist suspects can be held before being charged led to a large Labour rebellion last year - and prompted Mr Davis's resignation. They were later shelved following a heavy defeat in the House of Lor...

Shenanigans at the New Scientist. The other day I posted a link to an article in the New Scientist on spotting a hidden religious agenda (still available here ). If you click through to the article, here's what you get: New Scientist has received a legal complaint about the contents of this story. At the advice of our lawyer it has temporarily been removed while we investigate. Apologies for any inconvenience. It's been pulled. Apparently someone made a complaint. It's not clear who did but the conjecture is flying. Pharyngula: Come on, New Scientist Sandwalk: What's Up with New Scientist ? Ne w Humanist Blog: What's going on at the New Scientist? I'd just say that no one is happy. New Scientist is one of the few magazines I still buy because it's such a good resource. Okay I get it for the centrefold. Still, I sometimes read the articles. I think that it's sullying its reputation here by caving in at the first sign of resistance.

Between this Stranger Fruit: God Hates Figs and this Barack Obama Versus Religion

I've been a bit surprised lately at the number of articles, posts and news stories supporting legalization of at least some of the currently illegal set of substances. Is the mood changing or is this just a statistical anomaly? The Cato Institute podcast recently had a discussion about the problems facing Mexico due to the increasing power and lawlessness of drug lords and cartels and another on the science behind medical marijuana. It's hard to do that if you're not stating a position.   The Economist (link to a related Boing Boing post) had a feature in its weekly podcast advocating legalization as the 'least bad' option. Let's face it, they're not a hippy, lefty rag. Reason has had features advocating a change in drug policy lately. They're not exactly burnt-out granola huggers. Hell, Penn Jillette posted a video pushing for pot legalization. I'm waiting for Jello Biafra's old rant to be posted up again. Grow More Pot! So what's going on...

I wonder what God has to say about it.

The advantage to living in the UK, if there is one that is, presents itself every Friday when the Now Show comes on BBC Radio 4. A good example of why this makes up for so many deficiencies of Blighty is evident in this clip from Friday's show. on eg oodmove: A Bus That Annoys Christians We're done here, go listen to it. Or subscribe on iTunes if you have one of them there iPod thingamajigs.

Compliance is easy to plan for -- We'll tell you when you're not compliant. BBC NEWS | World | Europe | EU 'terror' racquets court ruling A secret EU list of items banned from being carried on to aircraft has been declared illegal by the European Court of Justice.

This is just deliciously multi-layered in its irony, isn't it? BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | China denounces US 'rights abuse' China has responded in detail to a US report published this week criticising China for alleged rights abuses. Beijing released its own report on the US, saying crime is a threat to many Americans and racial discrimination prevails in social life across the US.

BBC NEWS | Education | Schools get advice on creationism Creationism is to be debated alongside the theory of evolution in science and religious education lessons in secondary schools across Hampshire. Teachers are being given advice on how questions about evolution and God can be explored with 11 to 14-year-olds. Critics said the advice was "a retrograde step" and should be dropped.

More Americans say they have no religion - Faith- msnbc.com A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all. Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey. Northern New England surpassed the Pacific Northwest as the least religious region, with Vermont reporting the highest share of those claiming no religion, at 34 percent. Still, the study found that the numbers of Americans with no religion rose in every state. Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here "No other religious bloc has kept such a pace in every state," the study's authors said.

Science-Based Medicine » 2009: Shaping up to be a really bad year for antivaccinationists And thank fuck for that. Go read. Now.

How to spot a hidden religious agenda - science-in-society - 28 February 2009 - New Scientist

Better late than never, right? It seems that some people are coming to the realization that all that's been going on for the last 6 years is actually not pointing in the right direction. Surprise! The latest person to submit to reason: Ex-spy chief Dame Stella Rimington says ministers have turned UK into police state - Times Online Dame Stella Rimington, the former head of MI5, has accused the Government of exploiting people’s fear of terrorism to restrict civil rights. Ministers risked handing a victory to terrorists who want people to “live in fear and under a police state”, said the former spy, who retired as Director General of the Security Service in 1996. I'm glad you feel more at ease to say this sort of thing now that you're retired. Brian Eno, yes that guy, is quoted later in the article: Brian Eno, the musician turned activist who will speak at the Convention on Modern Liberty later this month, said that Dame Stella was right.: "When the government passed its...

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | 'Miraculous' survival in Turkey 1 I like the irony quotes around Miraculous in the article headline. 2 Is this guy the luckiest fucker you've heard of in quite a while?

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Steal This Phrase ignorexia verbosa Guess which right-wingnut radio talk show host and pretender to the leadership of the Republican party it was coined about. Go on, guess.

Just go get one, okay? Christian salt seller hopes to shake up market - Examiner.com HT to B oing Boing, through Fark .

I may or may not have mentioned previously my ongoing fascination with iTunes U. in this little corner of iTunes is hidden a vast number of really good courses - refreshers on things you took years ago, chances to listen in on courses you didn’t get the chance to take, talks on subjects esoteric and topical. But around these little gems is a vast array of uninteresting junk, poorly produced or mixed audio files and outright crapola. In this last category I give you “Old Testament Content and History” from the Concordia Seminary. Groan. I listen to these bits of audio frustration so you can keep your ear canals pristine. Don’t do this one to yourself. Now, coming in I had a number of  expectations: Analysis of the Old Testament especially teasing out the threads of history from myth Analysis of what it tells us about traditions and influences on Jewish and Christian thought and communities Some reference to archaeology, somewhere along the line. What I got was:...